Shaken
by guineafeather
Summary: Yugi is struggling to survive in a war-torn country when he finds a strange boy injured in the streets.  Who is this boy, and how did he come to be there?
1. Prologue:  A Bit of Luck

**Hey, this is GuineaFeathers. Don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! (Obviously). Anyway, I hope you enjoy this story. I will continue this story if anyone shows any interest in what would happen next.**

Blasts rang out through the city and everywhere there was a rumble of buildings crumbling, being pounded down until all that was left was a pile of rubble where a once proud metropolis had stood. This was nothing new. It had been years since the markets had buzzed with life, since people walked the streets without fear, and since the first attack removed even the idea of a safe school or a clean hospital.

It had been years since those…creatures had invaded.

People still lived in the city, if such an existence can be called life. They hid during the day. They foraged food at night. They did everything they could to survive. Attempting to leave would have them in the open for too long. Trying to find help would keep them away from the places that had not been destroyed yet, leaving them stranded in the barren war zone that held no safe haven.

They had once been normal, had jobs, families, lives. Now they were mere remnants of the people they once had been. When that first strike hit the city, it had forever changed them.

This night, moving slowly from building to building, a boy, about fifteen, carefully on the look-out for anyone else. In this time of chaos, even a piece of paper blowing down the sidewalk would make him jump. He knew the risk that each of them faced when they ventured out at night, even for the most basic necessities. Tonight, he had been lucky. He had managed to find a long abandoned store that had not yet been scavenged. He had grabbed as many cans of food as he could. Even knowing that on the faded labels were expiration dates that had long since passed, he rejoiced at the find. After so long, they were lucky to find anything, let alone armfuls of preserved cans.

He counted down in his head each street he passed, knowing exactly how many were left until he would return home. 3. A vandalized street sign was above him. He did not remember what it had said. 2. There was no sign here. Excitement sped through him as the small boy saw the last street before he reached his home. Just as he was about to round a corner, he heard a noise. There was someone else there. It was nothing that would have caught a normal person's attention, but it was there. He had heard it. His excitement evaporated in an instant. He had been caught. Maybe someone was playing a sick game with him. Allowing him to find so much precious food, only to have everything ripped out from under him.

He attempted to summon up all the energy inside of him, and to make himself stop shaking so that he could perform the actions needed to escape. He turned to face the sound…but saw nothing. There was no monster there to blast him to shreds. No enemy there to imprison him, turn him into their slave. He stared into the shadows for a moment. He saw the putrid dumpster that had long since been abandoned. The rotting remains of garbage festered there and no one dared go near it for fear that they would contract some disease.

It must have been the wind, he thought. As though to confirm his suspicions, a breeze ripped past him, making him shiver. He frowned and stared at the sky. It was black. He could feel rather than see the rolling clouds above him, blocking the moon and the stars from view, and threatening to unleash a thrashing torrent upon them. He knew it would be bad, for he could feel the electricity in the air. He needed to hurry. It would not be long now.

He took a cautious step towards safety. No sooner had he placed his foot on the ground, a groan ripped through the night. His head whipped around. He was sure of it this time, there was no doubt about it, someone was there. Letting the energy pour from his body, he stepped, ever so cautiously, towards the dumpster. He held his breath, his eyes watering at the stench. Carefully, he raised his hand, grasped the lid, and, summoning every bit of fighting spirit he could, flung it back. What he saw there was the last thing he expected.

Lying, half covered in garbage, surrounded by flies, was a boy. From what he could see, he realized that this boy could not have been more than a year or two older than himself. The boy was also undeniably unconscious. He could not be dead, for if he was dead he wouldn't have moaned a moment ago.

He needed to get home, that was certain. It would be morning soon, and sunrise would make him visible to those…things again. He looked around hurriedly. This boy was injured, blood clotted in his hair and on his clothes. Where was his family? How had he survived this long only to be beaten and left here? A rain drop hit his nose. He looked up, only to have another fall onto his forehead. The storm was here. He looked back at the boy, knowing he couldn't leave him.

Breathing in and out slowly, trying to think clearly, he realized that he would have to choose. He could either save himself and let the boy stay here, bleeding, in the rain, where he would either die or be found the next day, or he could sacrifice all the precious nourishment which his find had earlier that night had offered him and take this boy with him.

"Damn it!" he muttered. He quietly placed the cans on the ground and began pulling the boy out. It was a slow process. The boy was taller and heavier than he himself could manage on a refugee's diet, so navigating him safely out of the dumpster without jostling his already battered frame was challenging to say the least. It took him several moments to manage it. By now the rain had begun pounding gently around him. It would not be long now.

He hoisted the boy up so that his arm was around his shoulder and began to drag him towards safety. His could feel his muscles ache in protest. From beside his ear he heard another low groan and felt the boy stir. Looking over, he saw that the boys eyes had opened, and he gazed, unfocused, towards an arbitrary spot on the ground in front of them. After a few seconds he seemed to regain some of his facilities. He panicked, trying to push the smaller boy away from him.

"It's okay! I'm a friend," the small boy whispered hurriedly, placing a calming hand on the other's shoulder. "You can trust me."

This had the desired effect. The other boy sagged back into him, possibly too exhausted to argue.

"Friend," he croaked. He seemed puzzled by this word, as though something in it did not add up.

"Yes. I'm a friend. My name is Yugi."

"Yugi…friend," the taller boy breathed as his eyelids fluttered shut.

He did not stir again as Yugi finished dragging him the last few steps towards his home. As he shut the door tightly behind him, he heard the first crash of thunder and the pounding of the storm that had finally arrived.


	2. Waking Up

**GuineaFeather here again! This Chapter's going to be from the boy's (You guys probably have already figured out who it is, but humor me anyways) point of view. Hopefully the story will start making sense a little better at this point, but unfortunately there are still going to be a lot of questions left unanswered. I obviously do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of the characters. **

"Uggh," I groaned, my hand making its way up to my face as a light registered on the other side of my eyelids. The light made my head pound. I felt panic shoot through me. _Where am I, and how did I get here?_

"Grandpa! I think he's awake!" shouted a boy nearby. The voice could only be described as that of a boy, it was so young. The voice was also very loud, and sent another wave of pain through me.

Removing my hand, I attempted to open my eyes, to try and find where this boy was. This was a mistake, and as soon as my lids parted, I groaned again and put both my hands back to my eyes. _Light should not hurt so much_, I thought.

"Whoa, there," said the boy again. The boy's voice sounded so familiar…where had I heard it before? "Sorry. You must have a headache." I heard a rustling and then the boy's voice was a lot closer, "Is that better?"

I chanced removing my hands from my face, one at a time. Finding that the searing light had gone, I chanced trying to open my eyes again. It took a moment for me to adjust, but when I did, I found myself, quite literally, face to face with a pair of huge round eyes, centered on a worried face, framed in blond bangs, with darker hair behind that stuck up in all directions. The boy hovered over me, only a little away from my face.

"Other than your head, how do you feel?" There it was again, that nagging sensation that I had heard that voice before. "My grandpa should be down here soon to check on you. So don't worry, I'm your friend now, I won't let anything happen to you."

The moment the words had left the boy's mouth, recognition hit me. "You are…Yugi?" My voice sounded hoarse, as though I had not used it in a long time. I remembered now. "You brought me here, didn't you?" Now if I only knew where _here _was.

"Oh, you remember last night!" chimed the boy…Yugi. "Yeah, I found you. You were unconscious and looked like you were in pretty bad shape, so I brought you back with me. It's not safe to be out in the open at the best of times, but with the storm last night, I figured you would be better off here with us than out by yourself." When Yugi had finished, he looked so proud of himself.

_A simple yes or no would have done, _I thought grumpily as my head issued another complaint against my skull. _You know, for someone who is worried that I have a headache, you sure do talk a lot. _I tried not to flinch, but was sure that I at least grimaced.

"So, you never answered my question," said Yugi, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he was only increasing my discomfort by talking, "how are you feeling?"

I sighed. I did a mental inventory of each part of my body. Legs, sore. Hips, sore. Stomach and chest, he took a deep breath and grimaced, really sore. Left arm hurt, right was ok. Neck, stiff. Head, still pounding. "Hurts all over," I muttered.

"Yeah, I kind of thought so," murmured Yugi, sympathy in his voice. "Oh, by the way, I forgot to ask, what's your name? You know mine, but I don't know yours."

Name? Well…that's odd. "I…" I started, but found myself unable to say anything else.

"If you don't want to tell me your name, that's fine," Yugi said in a rush. "I mean, you don't really know me very well and all."

"That's not it," I muttered, distracted. I didn't have anything against Yugi. Even if I had just met him, the boy had still saved me, I remembered that much, at least.

"Oh," said Yugi, sounding confused. "Then what is it?"

"I don't know," I groaned, frustrated.

"If you'd like me to give you a few minutes, I can leave," said Yugi, still misunderstanding.

"No, I don't know! I don't…I don't know it! I don't know my name!" I burst out. Yugi stared at me.

How ironic. Now that Yugi was actually silent, my head was throbbing worse than ever as I tried to remember something so simple. _Who am I?_

After my outburst, we sat in silence for a long time, until we heard footsteps coming down a set of stairs. Yugi, who looked more worried than ever, slid off his chair and went over to the old man that appeared in the door. The man, Yugi's grandfather, I presumed, was slightly shorter than Yugi himself and wore a bandana on his head. He had an incredulous and mistrusting look on his face.

"Well, hello there," he said politely, if not a little coldly. "It's nice to meet you. You can call me Grandpa. Would you mind telling me your name?"

"Um, Grandpa," said Yugi, hesitantly, "he says he doesn't remember what his name is."

"Oh, well, that's a surprise," said Grandpa, in a haughty, sarcastic tone.

"Please go easy on him. He was hurt pretty bad when I found him, maybe he hit his head or something," said Yugi. He sounded as though he was pleading. That didn't quite add up. _What reason could he have for pleading with Grandpa about me?_

"Well, then, who are you, and are you working for the Initiative," demanded Grandpa. At the word 'Initiative' I noted that Yugi's childish face visibly hardened. "If you are, you have no place in my home, injured or not. If you lie now and I find out later that you are, rest assured that you will find yourself in a very bad situation faster than you can say 'spy'!"

"Please, sir, I do not lie to you. I do not know of this Initiative that you speak of. Ever since I woke up, I've been trying to remember, but I…don't know…anything. I don't know where I'm from or why I'm here or even who I am. It probably sounds far fetched, but I really don't know," I beseeched. Even as I spoke, I knew that my words were making no effect from the look on Grandpa's face.

"Oh, come on, Grandpa!" Both Grandpa and I looked over at Yugi in astonishment. Yugi looked determined. The expression was unusual on him. "He can't do any harm while he's hurt like this. At least let him stay until he's healed up. We can't just turn him back out on the street."

Grandpa's eyes softened a little at his grandson's begging and he reluctantly turned back to me, sighing and still looking suspicious, he said calmly, "Fine then. Do you have any idea what happened to you?"

"No, like I said, I can remember a little of when Yugi brought me here, but that's all until I woke up earlier. I keep trying to remember things, but every time I do, it just makes my head hurt," I murmured.

It was Grandpa's turn to startle Yugi and me. He laughed lightly, not much, just a little chuckle, but it was in such sharp contrast to his suspicious tone that it came as a complete shock. "Well at the moment, everything probably makes your head hurt. Whatever happened to you, you sure didn't fare well. Bruises all over, I think one of your ribs is broken, and then there's that gash on your head that I had to bandage up," Grandpa pointed at me, and my hand found its way up to my forehead, which was wrapped in a bandage. _How did I not notice that before now? _"You'll probably be out of it for a few days. You might even have a concussion. Probably why you can't remember anything…" He looked away, thoughtfully, stroking his little beard.

"Concussion? Bruises? Broken ribs? When were you going to mention any of this?" I snapped, turning to Yugi, alarmed that this had not been big enough news that the boy would have mentioned it earlier.

"You seemed to have a lot on your mind," said Yugi sheepishly. Seeing his repentant expression, I began to feel guilty for my brusque tone.

I sighed. "Well, can I see how bad it is? Do you have a mirror or something?"

Yugi hesitated for a moment, casting a wary glance at Grandpa, who nodded curtly. _What could that be about? Is there something wrong with me that they don't want me to know about? _Yugi got up and disappeared out of the room, returning several minutes later with a small hand mirror.

I took it gingerly, wincing as I moved. Grandpa was probably right about my ribs. I held the mirror in front of me, slightly afraid of what I might see. I looked in the mirror, and saw…that can't be right…I looked to my right. Yugi and Grandpa were right where they had been. Was this some sort of trick mirror?

"What's going on? Are you trying to fool me?" I demanded, angry now. Grandpa and Yugi exchanged knowing looks.

"I take it you forgot what you look like, did you? You apparently just now noticed the striking resemblance between you and Yugi here," said Grandpa, seemingly amused by my reaction.

Looking back into the mirror again, I couldn't help but marvel at the face that stared back at me. Behind the bruises that marred my cheeks and what could be seen of my forehead, I could easily see a strong resemblance to Yugi's own face, though with marked differences. The nose was the same, the chin, the mouth, and, if it hadn't been kept back by the bandage, I assumed the hair would look much the same. But not the eyes. Yugi's eyes were large and round and blue. The eyes staring at me, however, were still large, but without the childish roundness, more angled, and the irises were a deep reddish brown. My skin tone was in stark contrast with Yugi's. While Yugi was sheet white, completely devoid of color, my skin was a rich golden brown, not dark, but just enough that it sort of radiated energy.

"What…I don't…" I stuttered.

"The coloring of your hair means that you're probably part Senitian, like me and Yugi. Your skin tone bothers me, though. It's much too dark. Especially since none of us can go out in this day and age without being attacked," his voice had taken on the same angry tone as before, though I realized that this time it was meant towards someone other than myself.

"What Grandpa means," Yugi began, hurrying in what seemed to be an attempt to cut his grandfather off before he hit full steam, "is that you should be much paler than you are if you've been in the city. It doesn't make sense that you would have been able to go outside much during the day. We've never run into anyone who was as tan as you…"

"What does that mean?" I interrupted. "Is it a bad thing?" _This must be why Grandpa thought I was a spy. Is it going to make him so angry that he'll throw me out?_

Seeing my worry, Yugi hurried out, "Oh, not necessarily. There could be many explanations. Anyways," said Yugi, dragging out the word, as though he had not come up with something to say afterwards yet. Then an idea lit up in his eyes. "Oh, yeah! We still don't know your name. We need to have something to call you, and since you don't remember, why don't we make you one until you do?"

"Yes…what should we call him?" murmured Grandpa, going back to stroking his beard as he thought.

"Oh! I've got it," said Yugi after a long quiet moment, with so much energy it made me jump. "I know what we should call you! How about…Yami. Cause you're so dark, you know?" Yugi looked so proud of himself that I didn't have the heart to tell him that that was a really bad way of deciding what to name someone.

"Yes…Yami works well, I think…Well, you're welcome to stay with us, Yami, until you get healed up, remember who you are, or it turns out you're a spy. Whichever comes first!" And with that, Grandpa marched out of the room.

"Grandpa!" whined Yugi, who sighed and turned to me. "You like the name, don't you? If you don't, we can come up with something else, but I figured, I mean, we needed something to call you anyways, so…" Yugi broke off, looking embarrassed.

"Yami is fine," I murmured. My eyelids felt heavy again, and a yawn broke free from my lips.

Yugi noticed and smiled lightly. "I'll let you get back to sleep. I'm going up to help Grandpa and the others, but if you need anything, feel free to call me." He waved and smiled gently again before dashing back up the stairs.

I laid, staring at the door. _Yami, _I thought. _For now, until I know who I am. I shall be Yami._

**Well...what do you think? If you liked it (or really didn't) I'd love to hear from you, so please review! I'll get the next chapter up whenever I get it done, probably sometime early next week :)**


	3. First Impressions

**This is GuineaFeather again. I still don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! This chapter will be in Yugi's point of view and will introduce several of the main characters. Hope you guys like it, and, as always, I appreciate reviews.**

I closed the door and walked up the stairs, feeling a little guilty for leaving Yami by himself. I couldn't imagine what it would be like, not to know anything about who you were or where you came from.

I walked up the stairs to the big room where some of the others were sitting. My friend Anzu was there, working with Ryou and Shizuka to make some sort of soup. She had a displeased look on her face, and I felt a pang of guilt for leaving the cans behind. I made my way over to them slowly, and looked up at Anzu, who gave me a small, sad smile in return.

"I-I'm sorry, Anzu…I'll go back and get them tonight, I promise," I stumbled, knowing that she would understand. Anzu had been my best friend for years, and was the only one besides Grandpa who really paid me any attention.

"It's okay Yugi," she said, though I knew she was only trying to make me feel better. Our situation was desperate, I knew it and so did she. None of us were stupid enough not to realize that our survival was on the line every day. I was glad, though, that she was trying to make me feel better. Anzu always had a way about her that could make me forget everything else.

As I began to say something else, there was a loud bang and two of the others in our group walked in. It was Jonouchi and Honda. When I saw them, I had to suppress a groan. _Oh no, _I thought, _not again…_

Right on cue, Jonouchi looked over at me and said loud enough that there was no way any of us could have mistaken his words, "Yugi, you're not doing women's work again, are you? You should be helping us instead!"

I closed my eyes tightly, though I could picture in my mind exactly the look on Anzu's face. Right about now, her nose would crinkle a little, and her eyebrows pulled down over her eyes, which would be burning with rage. _Please, not today…_

"You idiots should learn to keep your mouths shut for once," Anzu shouted at them. "This is not 'women's work', as you so stupidly put it, this is work that we are _all _supposed to be doing, but you are too _lazy _to get over here and do anything. If Yugi wants to help us, that would be his choice. It just means he's a better person than either of you two!"

"What do you mean lazy? We were out all night scouting and managed to find some pretty awesome stuff," Jonouchi shouted back, gesticulating with a twig. "I mean, look at this," he pulled out a piece of metal that was so rusted that none of us could tell what it was. Even though he had the air that it was impressive, he may as well have been showing us the twig again.

"You don't even know what that is, do you?" Anzu demanded. "I bet you couldn't-"

Anzu was mid-shout when we heard a noise coming from the basement room. It sounded like a very loud, long groan. There was a slight pause, in which everyone stared at the door I had entered through, and then back at me. Apparently, even though I had been in the room with them the whole time, I was supposed to know what had happened. I sighed and walked back towards the door, feeling them all still watching me.

I entered the room to find Yami simultaneously trying to clutch his head and chest. From the looks of it, he had tried to get up and his broken rib had protested. His face was contorted into a grimace of pain. I sighed and walked towards him, realizing that he could not be trusted to stay in one place if he was awake.

"You really should stay still," I murmured, pushing him back down. "You're not well enough to try to get up yet."

"I heard yelling," Yami moaned out. This drew me up short. Why on earth would he want to come up to see what the yelling was about? If there's yelling, there's most likely trouble, which means you should stay hidden. Everyone knows that.

I was about to question him further when I heard the word, "Holy…" from behind me. I realized then that I had not shut the door. Jonouchi had followed me down, and was staring at Yami in what appeared to be shock. I knew why, though. I had had the same reaction when we had got him cleaned up enough that I first saw the resemblance between the two of us. Except for our skin tone, we could be brothers. Senitians are very rare, most of our kind were wiped out a long time ago, so most people never meet one of us. Those of us who are Senitian are unlikely to ever meet many more. And here, in our small gathering, were not only my grandfather and myself, but this other boy, completely unrelated to us, who I had found last night. The statistics of this actually happening were not in our favor, but here we sat.

I couldn't help but grimace. The others had heard me telling Grandpa that I had found an injured boy last night and brought him home. They had not, however, seen Yami yet. I had been hoping to put this off for at least a few days until I could figure out some good explanation, but here Jonouchi was, ruining all of that.

"Oh, come on Jonouchi, get back to work," Anzu said, her voice coming closer. When she reached the door, she saw Jonouchi, still transfixed by the sight of Yami, who was staring right back at him in confusion. She followed his line of vision, and her jaw dropped, shock playing on her face. She and Jonouchi exchanged a look, seeming to have forgotten that only moments before that they had been at each other's throats, before returning to stare at Yami.

"Yugi," said Jonouchi after a moment, "aren't you going to introduce us to your little friend?"

I turned to look at Yami, whose eyebrows had drawn together ever so slightly in indignation at being called my little friend. I sighed again, there was no getting out of it now.

"Jonouchi, Anzu, this is Yami. He's the one I found last night," I muttered under my breath. I looked up at Yami again. "These are Jonouchi and Anzu, they live with us. They would be the ones you heard yelling a minute ago."

Recognition flashed on Yami's face, but as I looked back at Anzu and Jonouchi, I noted a change in their expression, too, but not for the better. Anzu no longer looked shocked, she was now looking Yami over with a bit more interest than was good for my piece of mind. Jonouchi, on the other hand, become suspicious.

"So who are you, anyways? How did you get to be where Yugi found you at?" Jonouchi demanded. Yami looked as though he was tired of being asked this question, especially since he couldn't answer.

Before I could say anything, Anzu piped up, "If he's hurt, it doesn't matter where he came from! We'll take care of him if he needs it." I couldn't help but notice the way she said specifically _him_ and how as she yelled at Jonouchi her eyes never strayed from Yami. Yes, definitely too much interest.

"He needs to rest," I said weakly. I knew it would do no good to order either of them around, but, to my surprise, Anzu nodded, turning to leave, though seeming reluctant to take her eyes off of Yami. Jonouchi didn't bother agreeing with me, but seemed equally reluctant to leave, if only because he did not want to turn his back on a stranger.

When they were both gone, I sighed, and turned back to Yami. "So much for letting you get some rest. Sorry about the yelling, everyone's just a bit testy. You really should stay down here and get some rest, though."

Yami stared at the door for a moment before turning to look at me. His expression held barely concealed frustration. It wasn't as though I couldn't see why he would be frustrated, though. I mean, he woke up with mysterious injuries, not knowing the place he awoke in, the people who lived there, or who he himself was. I'd be frustrated, too. To distract him from his frustration I decided to change the subject.

"Why did you try to get up anyways?" I asked, trying to get his mind off of everything he didn't know, and onto something I wanted to know.

"I heard yelling," he repeated the same phrase as earlier. I only stared at him blankly, waiting for him to continue.

When I realized he had no intention of finishing his statement, I sighed, "Why on earth would you try to go towards someone yelling?"

He stared at me for a second, as though wondering if I was seriously asking for clarification on something that was very obvious. Then he answered simply, "It sounded like you were in trouble."

It took me a moment to process what he had said. What he was saying didn't really make much sense. _He _was injured. _He _was lying in a strangers basement with no memory of who he was. But he had tried to come and make sure that _I _was not in trouble. This did not add up at all.

"Why does it matter?" I asked, blankly. He stared at me again, this time with more confusion than incredulity in his eyes. "I mean," I clarified, "You just met me, and you're hurt, even if I was in danger, there was nothing you could have done anyways." His mouth gave a slight twitch at an annoyance at something in my words which I did not hear.

"You said we were friends, right?" he asked, taking me off guard.

"Well, yes," I said quietly, not sure where he was going with this.

"If my friend is in danger, whether I am _useless_"-he hissed the word, and I suddenly understood why my words had annoyed him-"or not, I _will _help them. It would just be a lot easier if my damned ribs would just heal already!" He glared down at his chest as though he could will his ribs to heal faster. I almost laughed at the annoyance in his eyes.

"I didn't mean to imply that you're useless," I began. "I just meant that until you heal up, you won't be able to do much protecting of anyone." His expression softened a little bit, though he let out another sigh. "That's why you need to rest up. So you can heal and we can start finding things for you to do. Otherwise, I'm afraid you'll probably get bored with nothing to do all day."

He looked back at me and gave me a small smile. "If you do not mind me asking," he said with a dull tone that barely concealed the interest I could hear running behind it, "why did those two keep staring at me. Surely you must have told them that I was down here."

I blinked, remembering Anzu and Jonouchi's fascination with Yami. "Jonouchi and Anzu are not used to seeing other Senitians around. There aren't many of us left. Plus, they don't actually know you, yet, so they are probably just curious about you. We don't see too many strangers." I purposefully left out that Jonouchi didn't trust him and that Anzu seemed as though she might be developing some sort of crush on him. Neither of those would help to clarify anything. They would only make him more confused, which would mean that I would have to explain more, and he really did need to rest.

"Hmm." If the look on his face was any indication, he did not completely believe me, but had decided to leave it at that for the moment. I noticed that he was fighting to keep his eyelids open, and laughed lightly when he struggled to suppress a yawn.

"Well, I'm going to go. I want you to stay here and actually get some sleep this time. There shouldn't be any yelling, and if there is, you can just ignore it. It's probably just Jonouchi again anyways. Just call up when you wake up. If I'm not here, Grandpa or someone else will come down to check up on you." I made a mental note to make sure to warn Ryou, the only one of the group who I had no doubt would be able to keep a straight face in this situation, to stay near the door in case Yami needed something while I went out later to track down the food I had stashed the night before.

Yami nodded, seeming to accept my suggestion, if only because his body was giving him no other options.

I heard Yami say quietly, "Bye…boy who looks…like…me…"

I laughed a little. Apparently he was too tired to remember my name at the moment. At least he still knew who he was talking too, though. "Go to sleep, other me."

A small smile played on his face as I walked out of the room, shutting the door behind me, and left Yami, once again, in hopes that this time he would be able to sleep without fear that I would be attacked. I smiled at the thought. I had a feeling that Yami was going to be a good friend. I really hope it doesn't turn out that I was wrong and he actually was a spy.


	4. Getting the Truth

**FINALLY! Oh, it's been a long time coming, but I finally got this chapter ready. It was actually ready two weeks ago, but my computer kind of ate it, and I haven't had time to rewrite it heh. So, without further ado, here's a chapter for anyone who cares after this long (I think it's been three weeks?) I'll warn you now, I made Ryou very talkative, as he's the only character that I could stretch in the direction of actually giving any information without it getting sidetracked.**

**I don't own anything.**

Opening my eyes, the first thing I noted was that the pounding in my head had turned into a dull throb. This could only be a good sign, considering that now I could blink without a sharp stab of pain, and it allowed me to look around the room freely, without being temporarily incapacitated by any stray light.

Truly examining the room for the first time, I found myself on a small bed, which creaked with age, but had been lovingly taken care of. There was almost no decoration in the room, the walls were bare, but there were no cobwebs or stains. It was not much of a room to say the least, but it was well maintained and had an air of warmth beneath its barren walls.

I considered getting up to have a better look around, but decided against it, preferring to avoid the kind of pain that had ensued the last time I had tried to move. Resigning myself to being bedridden for the time being, I settled for trying to get someone's attention, calling "Hey!" as loud as I could, though my voice came out hoarse and my ribs ached from being forced to expand. After a moment with no answer, I tried again, "Hey, is someone up there?"

"Hold on just a minute," called a voice from the room outside the door. It was not a voice I had heard before. It did not belong to grandpa, Yugi, Jonouchi, and certainly not to Anzu. The voice was definitely male and he formed the words differently from the others.

A moment later I heard footsteps on the stairs and the door opened. In stepped a boy, about medium height, not as tall as Jonouchi, but not short like Yugi, with long shaggy white hair. He carried a tray, which held a bowl and cup.

Noticing my glance at the tray, he smiled kindly, and said, "Yugi said you hadn't eaten in a while, so I thought you might be hungry. He'll be back soon, by the way." He walked over to me, set the tray down on the side of the bed, and sat with his back against the wall. "My name is Ryou, by the way."

I tried to sit up as slowly as I could, and, seeing that I was struggling, he came back and helped me to sit with my back against the pillows, moving the tray into my lap. I was so distracted by this task, however, that it took a minute for his words to sink in.

"Yugi left?" I asked, disbelievingly. Why did everything about that boy have to be such a contradiction? He was polite and forceful, fearful and brave, wise and childish, sharp as a tack and naïve beyond all means. Now, on top of everything else that had happened, my only friend, who himself had told me that it was too dangerous for people to be outside by themselves, had ventured out, most likely by himself. The boy was drowning me in enough illogicalities that they left my head spinning.

"Yeah," Ryou replied, appearing to note my enraged reaction and giving me a curious look. "He'll be back soon, though. He went to get the supplies that he left when he found you. I don't think he wanted to leave, what with you being injured and Jonouchi and Anzu's reactions when they met you, but he's the only one who knows where he put them, and we're running low," he replied, his eyes drifting momentarily towards the bowl on my lap.

Looking down, I noted that the bowl contained a substance that if the definition was stretched very far could be called soup, but was really mostly water with little chunks of something floating around in it. For the first time since I had woken in this place, it hit me how much my presence was inconveniencing these people. They had so little that they were forced to send children scavenging for food, and yet they were sharing what they had with me. I could not help the embarrassment that slid through me as I realized that I really was a burden upon them, and wished, for what felt like the millionth time, that my body would just heal up already.

We were both quiet for a moment, before I spoke in a voice that was only slightly higher than a whisper. "Ryou…do Jonouchi and Anzu hate me as well? Grandpa does, he made sure to tell me, but their reactions…" I trailed off, remembering the shocked expressions that had lit up their faces, both with something just below the surface that I could not identify, but from Yugi's reaction, I could only assume that neither of their reactions had been good ones.

"That's not it," said Ryou slowly, as though considering each word before speaking it. "Grandpa and Jonouchi don't really trust you yet, that's all. And Anzu hasn't stopped talking about you since she saw you down here. I think she's quite taken with you, actually." The ghost of a smile lit up his face.

I stared at him in shock. Well…I was not expecting that at all. I found it hard to believe about Grandpa, but Jonouchi made sense, and Anzu…that was just confusing.

I shook my head, giving up on this train of thought. I would work that out later, I did not want to give myself a headache again so soon. Instead, I decided to pursue a line of question that was bothering me.

"Who went with Yugi?" I had a feeling that I knew the answer to this, but wanted confirmation before I continued my questioning.

"With Yugi?" Ryou said, confusion clear on his face. "He went by himself. He may not look like it, but he's perfectly capable of taking care of himself."

"Somehow I find that hard to believe," I muttered under my breath, lifting the spoon on the tray, careful not to jostle my ribs, and collected some of the "soup", before bringing it to my lips. I grimaced slightly at the taste. It was bland and the best way to describe it is to say that if the color khaki had a taste, that would be what the soup tasted like. Khaki. Even though it was in no way appealing, my mouth watered and my stomach growled. Who knew when the last time I had eaten was. _Definitely not me, _ I thought bitterly. Regardless, I quickly scooped more of it onto my spoon.

"Well, it's not like he's a child or anything. I mean he's the same age I am, and only a little less than a year younger than Jonouchi and Anzu," said Ryou, with a placating tone in his voice, as though he realized that I was quickly becoming fed up with the situation.

This drew me up short. I lowered the spoon which held my seventh bite of the khaki soup and stared at Ryou. This information did not add up. There was no way that little Yugi, with that little round face and big childish eyes was the same age as the boy in front of me, and certainly no way that he almost as old as the two almost grown individuals that had presented themselves before me the night before.

"I know, I know," said Ryou, a small laugh barely audible. "He really doesn't look like it. He's probably the most resourceful out of all of us against the Initiative, though. Jonouchi and Honda, you haven't met him, he's tall and has dark hair, they try, but they're normal. They can't help it, there's not much they can do to resist the Initiative. Yugi…he's special. Like me and you."

"What do you mean, like me and you?" Did this have something to do with being Senitian? And if so, why did Ryou group himself in with us? I thought back to what Yugi had said, and I was sure that he mentioned that he, grandpa, and I were the only Senitians here.

"Well you and Yugi are Senitians, and I'm Basuadan," Ryou said matter of factly. After I had stared at him for another couple minutes, he seemed to get the hint that he should continue talking because I obviously had no idea what he meant. "How much do you know about Senitians and Basuadans?"

"Only what Yugi and Grandpa told me yesterday about Senitians," I said. I wished, not for the first time, that I could just gather them all up in one room and get this all over with at once. _Hi, I would tell you my name, but I kind of cannot remember it, so you can call me Yami, because that is what Yugi decided to name me. Aside from my name, I cannot remember the specifics of just about anything else, so please, it is not worth the effort to ask me questions. I will let you know if I remember anything, but until then, it is not really worth the effort. _Hmm. Maybe it is better to have the introductions done one by one.

"Yugi told me you didn't remember much, I guess he was right," said Ryou thoughtfully. "Well, let's start from the beginning then. There are actually three groups. Senitians like you and Yugi, Basuadans like me and then another group called Kirlians. The easiest way to pick out the groups is generally by our hair color. Most Basuadans have very light hair and most Senitians have more than one color in their hair. That's pretty easy, but Kirlians have darker hair and it's harder to tell them apart from everyone else."

"Why does it matter?" I asked simply. Ryou looked at me, confusion plain on his face. "I mean, why does it matter who are Senitians, Basuadans and Kirlians?"

"Oh, well, that's pretty simple. These three groups can use magic," said Ryou happily.

I only stared at him. Oh dear. "What?" I must have misheard him. Definitely.

He sighed lightly, and shook his head, a small smile on his lips. "Senitians, Basuadans, and Kirlians are each able to use magic to summon creatures," he said, matter of factly.

I sat for a moment, my mind seemingly completely full of information and completely blank of any meaning for it. After a moment, I tried to come up with a logical way of connecting the words so that they would make sense. "You…and Yugi…can summon…monsters," I said, my voice coming out a dull monotone.

Ryou laughed lightly. "In a manner of speaking, yes. Each of us can summon different creatures. The one I usually summon is a sort of spell that allows me to control other people's creatures, so you can probably imagine that it can be useful, but other times it's pretty much useless. Yugi, on the other hand, can summon a real monster, which can fight for him. It's just…our creatures reflect parts of our hearts. Yugi's heart is so timid and fragile after everything that's happened. Well, let's say his monster's not as strong as it could be, and leave it at that." I could tell from the look on his face that Ryou was done discussing this topic, and so I allowed him to leave it at that, though my mind had managed to move past the shock and was now brimming with questions.

"I bet what you really want to know," Ryou began, changing the subject as I knew he would, "is how we ended up like this." As he spoke, he waved his hand, gesturing to the barren, underground room.

"Well, yes," I admitted.

"The story actually goes back a very long time," Ryou said, speaking slowly, as though making sure that every word fit just right. "I don't even know how long, but, for longer than anyone remembers, Senitians, Basuadans and Kirlians were treated as treasures by the kingdoms. I suppose you can guess why the kingdoms would love to have people around who could summon powerful monsters to do their bidding. So, all the countries vied for as many members as they could from each of the three groups, and we were scattered.

"Over time, we became more and more disjointed, only seeing others of our kind when our creatures did battle. With this lack of consolidation of the members of each group, we married off to regular people, and over time, the magic became diluted and ceased to present itself in the children. That's why there are so few of us left. We were spread too thin. There are a lot of people who have a little Senitian, Basuadan or Kirlian blood in them, and they are able to summon small spirits sometimes, but nothing like what you or I would be able to do.

"Anyways, over time, of those of us who still remain, I'd say about a ten thousand, if that, a group formed who decided that they were tired of taking orders and living with the others and killing each other off. They believed that we should join forces and take control of the humans who cannot do magic as we can, make them do our will rather than the other way around. These people called themselves the Initiative. They began recruiting followers. Now I'd say there are about 500 of them, but they're powerful.

"No one was prepared. When they moved into position, no one even noticed, really, and then they began taking over cities, destroying everything in their path, killing normal people and forcing us to either join them or be killed," by this point, he was peaking so quietly I could barely hear him. "That's how Yugi's parents died. His father was a Senitian, his mother was a normal human. They killed his mother first, they made his father watch. Then, when she was dead, they killed him, too. The only reason they didn't kill Yugi and grandpa too was because they were too young and too old. They probably thought they would die off anyways with the city being taken over and all."

I waited a minute, and when he did not continue talking, I spoke for the first time since he'd begun his story. "They took over this city then," I asked. He nodded. "And you all joined together to survive?" Another nod. I thought for a moment, before asking quietly, "How long have you all been down here?"

He closed his eyes, as though it was painful to think about. I waited for a moment, and opened my mouth to speak, deciding he wasn't going to answer. Then, a voice sounded from across the room. "Eight years. It's been eight years."

I looked up in shock to find Yugi standing at the door, covered in blood.

**I'd love to hear from you, and if you liked it and you want an update faster, reviews make me more motivated :3**


	5. What happened was

**So what happened was...ok I don't have a good excuse. First I had to go house hunting, then finals came up, then I had to move, and somehow in the middle of all of that, I just forgot to update. Sorry bout that. Another problem? I usually have someone proof my stuff, but she's out of town at the moment, so this is going up without being read. Anyways, this chapter will continue in Yugi's point of view. It starts before the end of the last chapter, so while there is new information given, it is really only takes you to about a page after the end of the chapter before this.**

**Don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of the characters.**

I looked back at the door in concern. Yami had been asleep several hours, but he could wake up at any time. I had told Ryou to look after him, but that was no guarantee that Jonouchi, Honda, Anzu, and Grandpa would leave him be and not go pester him about one thing or another were he to wake…

I shook my head in an attempt to clear it. Now was not the time to worry about Yami. He was fine. His injuries weren't too severe, he was in the basement, and he was safe for the moment. I, on the other hand, needed to get my head in the game if I wanted to avoid running into anyone and get back to safety as quickly as possible. Moving swiftly along the block, carefully on the lookout for anyone, I dashed back to the dumpster, retrieving the stack of cans from behind it.

I knew that in all reality I should just drop these off and go back to try and find more at the abandoned store, but…the thought of leaving Yami by himself for too long worried me. Who knew what kind of trouble someone like him would get into if left to his own devices? For all I knew, by the time I got back, he and Jonouchi would be in an all out war with each other. I grimaced at the fact that I could easily see that happening, and walked briskly out of the alley.

"Well, well, what have we here," came a voice from behind me. I froze. Turning around, I found a towering figure towering over me, glaring down at me from behind thick, bushy eyebrows. A quick once over confirmed that I was in a very bad situation. I was alone, even this close to safety, carrying a rather heavy bag of canned food, and I was being stared down by someone almost twice my height whose neck was bigger around than my thigh. And worse, from the look of him, there was every possibility that he could be Kirlian.

Without thinking, I began to back away slowly, only to have a fist slammed into my chest. I felt the air rush out of my lungs and fell to the ground, coughing and gasping, and heard a laugh from above me. _Focus, Yugi! _I thought desperately, trying to focus all my energy.

Before I had pulled myself together, I was being drug from the ground by my collar, single handed, by a heavily muscled arm. "Well, well," he said again, "if it isn't a little Sennitian! A weak one at that, too! Where's your monster, huh?" he taunted.

I closed my eyes, trying desperately to focus. Once again, the large man in front of me stopped my train of thought, this time by back-handing me across the face, laughing the entire time. The skin of my cheek was burning where his large hand had landed, and my lip had broken open.

"Now, now, we can't have such a little kid like you fighting, now can we," he barked, laughing in a booming voice. Urgh! There was no way I was going to be able to concentrate with this guy hitting me every five seconds. Then, something caught my eye behind him. I hadn't noticed it from down where I had been, but the sight was unmistakable. I felt my stomach drop as I realized that lying on the ground were a very beaten Jonouchi and Honda.

The man saw me glance behind him, and laughed again. "I found those two a little earlier. That filth deserved to be taught a lesson about polluting _our _city. And you know what, I'm feeling generous today. If you show them who's boss around here, I'll tell _my _boss that you're not one of those crazy, garbage loving freaks! Maybe he'll let you live. He might even let you join us!" He laughed again, mockingly, pushing me towards Jonouchi and Honda.

On the ground, I saw Jonouchi and Honda look at me with bleary eyes. I drew in all my energy, feeling the monster appear beside me. I stood still, feeling the anger and fear pounding the blood quickly through my veins, before answering him for the first time. "I will not let my friends be hurt any more, especially by someone like you," I shouted, and my monster unleashed its attack, knocking him to the ground, unconscious.

I guess he didn't think I was any sort of threat. He was obviously Kirlian from the way he was talking, but he hadn't even bothered to lay any traps against my attack. That was a big mistake.

I looked up to thank my monster and stared in shock. My monster was different from usual. Usually, when I summoned a monster, it appeared as a small child spell-caster, with relatively weak abilities. We had come to call this monster the Silent Magician. The magician still appeared before me, but this time it was slightly taller, and had a much more mature, older look to it. It gave me a small smile. I stared at it for only a moment before hurrying off towards Jonouchi and Honda.

I didn't have time to assess their injuries, and, for the second time in two days, I found myself leaving the cans and pulling someone much larger than myself home, only this time, I had my magician moving along beside me, a smile still on its face, bringing the other as well.

I left Jonouchi and Honda in their rooms upstairs and hurried to find someone for help. The first person I found was Anzu. She had been trying to clean, but immediately dropped everything and ran to take care of them. I still needed to find grandpa, though. Maybe he had gone down to check on Yami…The basement door was close, so I decided it would be worth the moment to check, or else I would have to make another trip back if he was there and I had gone to find him somewhere else.

I was about to open the door when I heard someone speaking. I would have just apologized for interrupting, but what the person was saying made me stop dead in my tracks. "…called themselves the Initiative. They began recruiting followers. Now I'd say there are about 500 of them, but they're powerful."

I strained to hear more of what the voice, belonging to Ryou of course, was saying. I silently opened the door. Even without the door in the way, I only caught brief bits of sentences. "…join them or be killed…Yugi's parents…normal…"

I knew what he was saying. I willed myself to stop listening. For the words to stop bringing those horrible images into my mind, of my parents being ripped to shreds by my own kind. I could hear my father's anguished pleas as we were forced to watch my mother bleed to death and they told us that it was his fault, all his fault that she suffered. If he wasn't there, the would have killed her quickly. _She wouldn't have had to feel a thing_, they said.

I was trapped in my own memories for what seemed like forever before Yami's voice, strained, but full of its resounding richness, seemed to boom in my ears. "They took over the city then?" Ryou nodded. "And you all joined together to survive?" He nodded again. I could see the thoughts working behind his eyes. Those big, expressive eyes, that seemed almost to change colors with his moods. They were brown, but had a remarkable quality about them that sometimes made them appear red, others a shade of vivid violet, like right now. The color seemed almost sorrowful, as though he was feeling the pain that we had felt for so long. Seeming to read my mind, he asked softly, "How long have you all been down here?"

Ryou visibly shrunk in on himself. Yami's brow furrowed and I could see that he thought he had overstepped. That wasn't it. Ryou had the same sort of unpleasant memories he had. Sometimes they were almost enough that I could envy Yami's complete lack of memories. Then I would realize that that's crazy. I shook my head to rid itself of those disturbing thoughts.

"Eight Years. It's been eight years," I said before I realized the words had left me. Yami's head shot up. When his eyes found me, they widened and he tried to sit up. Ryou was quick to place a hand on his shoulder, stopping him from moving around and hurting himself more.

"What happened to you, Yugi?" said Ryou, his voice no longer quiet. He rushed over to me, trying to find the source of the blood covering me. My eyes met Yami's and there was an odd emotion behind them. Before I could place it, his eyes left me and he turned face towards the wall.

"Don't worry about me, I'm not really hurt. Jonouchi and Honda need our help though. We need to hurry," I was still looking at Yami. What was wrong with him? "We need to find grandpa and get them looked at."

"Your grandpa should be upstairs, I'll go get him. Are Jonouchi and Honda in their rooms," he asked quickly. I nodded. "I'll go look after them. You can stay down here and rest." With that, he ran up the stairs, letting the door close loudly behind him.

I sighed, and went over to slump on the wall next to Yami. It hadn't even hit me until he'd said it just how tired I was. Before I reached it, I noticed that Yami had managed to get over enough that there was room for me to sit on the bed with him. I sat with him, looking up to thank him, only to notice that he still refused to look at me.

"Yami," I reached over to put a hand on his shoulder, only to have him jerk it out of my reach. Looks like he's too upset to care about hurting himself, I mused as he winced. "Yami, what's wrong," I asked in as soft a voice as I could manage.

He let out a harsh noise before turning his eyes to meet mine. "You could have been killed. You're covered in blood. Yet you come in here, acting as though it's nothing. What happened to 'it's not safe to be outside', Yugi? Ryou said you could take care of yourself, but, even so, how could you be so reckless as to go out by yourself?" That emotion I couldn't place earlier was now very obvious. I could see anger, worry, betrayal…

"Most of the blood isn't even mine," I said, drawing a blank on how to deal with my rather furious doppelganger.

"But some of it is! You were obviously somewhere dangerous. Why did you go out by yourself," he demanded glaring at me.

"Because I have people who need me! Each of us have something we have to do, I can't ask someone else to drop everything they're doing to come babysit me! That would just put someone I care about in danger." Why was he making such a big deal about this?

"And has it occurred to you that you are all I have?" he snapped.

I stared at him, realizing that he was probably right, and that he must have been scared when he found out that I had left him here by himself. If something had happened to me, he would have been by himself...

I swallowed, realizing that I should have at least told him myself that I was leaving. It had completely slipped my mind that he might be worried.

I reached out again, putting my hand on his arm successfully. It looks like his anger was starting to go down. "Yami, I'm sorry. I should have let you know."

"Promise me," he said, his voice still strained. "Promise me that you won't go out again without having someone else with you in case something happens."

I sighed and looked away. I still needed to get more food. I should go out again tonight while that Kirlian is unconscious. They would be looking for us tomorrow. Problem was, everyone was busy tonight. Jonouchi and Honda would be fine, they were both resilient, but at the moment, no one would want to leave their side to make a run out with me.

I looked back at Yami, to try to explain, but the look in his eyes stopped me. The emotions from earlier were still there, but now, there was something else. His eyes were pleading with me not to go out by myself again. '_You are all I have,' _he had said. He had nothing, no home, no family, no memories. I was truly the only thing he had, and I was fully willing to put myself in danger. He was frightened and I was making it worse.

"I won't go out without someone else," I promised, feeling my stomach turn at the thought.

"Thank you," he whispered, the barest hint of a smile turning up the corners of his mouth. We sat in silence for a moment. Neither of us were willing to speak first, but then his stomach growled loudly. The unexpected noise made me jump, and laugh just a little at the shocked expression on Yami's face as he glared at the offending body part.

Resting on his lap was a barely touched bowl of soup, which I supposed Ryou had brought him. "You should eat. I'm going to go check on Jonouchi and Honda," I said, trying to sound positive. Yami nodded just a little and picked up his spoon. "I think I'll have Grandpa come look at you tomorrow morning. Maybe you can get some of your bandages off, how does that sound?"

"That would be appreciated," he said in a dry voice, glancing at the bandages wrapping most of his body, many crusted with dry blood. "You should have Grandpa look at you, too. Even if it's not too bad, you still were injured."

I nodded, gave him a small smile, and left the room, without a backwards glance at the boy laying on the bed.

**Does anyone recognize the person who attacked Yugi, Jonouchi and Honda? Did anyone guess that Yugi's monster would be Silent Magician? I'll try to get another chapter posted soon. Once again, I'm sorry for this taking so long. Hopefully someone will have read the next chapter beforehand so they can tell me whether or not it sucks. Hopefully have an update within the next few days.**


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